Mary Wollstonecraft Research Paper

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A vindication of the rights of women written in 1792 can be considered one of the first feminist documents, although the term appeared much later in history. In this essay, Wollstonecraft debates the role of women and their education. Having read different thinkers of the Enlightenment, as Milton, Lord Bacon, Rousseau, John Gregory and others, she finds their points of view interesting and at the same time contrary to values of the Enlightenment when they deal with women’s place. Mary Wollstonecraft uses the ideas of the Enlightenment to demand equal education for men and women. I will mention how ideals of the Enlightenment are used in favor of men but not of women and explain how Wollstonecraft support her “vindication” of the rights of women using those contradictions.

Mary Wollstonecraft believed that women are capable of reaching equality and they should be given natural rights. Mary was a british author who wrote novels. She wrote these words in 1792 during the French Revolution. She believed that women compared to men were not equal but in order to be they need to have the same education. To reach her conclusions Mary used reason and experience

The Enlightenment lasted from the 1600s to the 1700s. It was a time when being intelligent was appraised. Wise people had different thoughts during the time of knowledge. Not all of them agreed on each other’s ideas, but they all mostly had the same vision of how different people should be treated equally (Background Essay). Logicians’ main theories during the Enlightenment were...if the government goes out of control, society has permission to dethrone it; all religion should be treated equal and women should have the same rights as men.

The philosophers of the Enlightenment created today. The Enlightenment was a time full of new ideas ranging from the 1620’s to the 1780’s. The philosophers of the time, including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Baron de Montesquieu all had grand ideas. The ideas were fueled by the opposition to the government or other issues the philosopher faced. These ideas were so revolutionary they live on in the minds of people fighting for equality and freedom today.

The Enlightenment was a time during the 17th and 18th century in Europe when the ideas of philosophers about an ideal government and human nature in society were being developed. Although women did not have equal rights as men, women did have the power to influence ideas during the Enlightenment. This is because they took on several roles as leaders, where they had chances and opportunities to act as philosophers and share their new ideas on the society of France.

In Europe, during the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, many philosophers gathered together to discuss their different but similar ideas to help shape the world we live in today. In the late 17th and 18th century, four enlightenment philosophers named John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft focused on the same main idea. They believed in individual rights and presented their arguments through religion, government, economics, and equality for women.

This is the major object Wollstonecraft recognizes concerning why women are secondary to men: every side of their background from the instant they arrive the world is positioned toward making them feeble, passive, and reliant on upon men. Women are entertained to only want to be attractive so they can appeal men. They take pleasure in their own humbleness and weakened physical strength. They partake in covetousness with other ladies. Since they are so restricted and restrained to the secluded domain, they become absorbed on no other responsibilities. They cannot apply resolve or truly develop their souls while lingering in this pathetic state. Growing up, mother 's will shape their daughters ' character, which are then further strengthen after they are sent to private schools. In their juvenile state, they are drawn towards men of bad notoriety because they desire valiant men and want to satisfy their thirst and hunger for imaginations and romanticisms. All of this is because of how they are raised; they hardly ever have any methods of transgression out of the construction

Gender role refers to those behaviors and attitudes that are considered to belong to one sex. Gender role is based on femininity and masculinity that differentiate women and men by giving men some roles and women which results to gender inequality. There some work in society that is regarded to belong to women such as cooking, taking care of children and other less important roles while men are given roles that makes them superior than women. Most of the gender roles associated with women makes them inferior and creates a room to be oppressed. Gender roles are constructed by society and attributed to women or men. In the book of vindication of the right of a woman, Wollstonecraft brings out clearly the roles of a woman in her society and how it has led to oppression of women (Wollstonecraft 22). Wollstonecraft believes that men and women are equal given the same environment and empowerment, women can do anything a man can do. In her society, education for women is only aimed at making her look pleasing to men. Women are treated as inferior being and used by men as sex objects. Wollstonecraft believed that the quality of mind of women is the same with that of men, and therefore women should not be denied a chance for formal education that will empower them to be equal with men.

Wollstonecraft argues for the rights of women in her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. She opposes that only men can receive education. Women are taught by their mother the knowledge of human weakness, “cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety” (2.2). They should be beautiful, then men will protect them. Wollstonecraft argues that women focus on being beautiful and stay indoors, they can’t really run reason because they depend on men. Women can’t bear a child well without good education. And they can’t be moral and virtuous without being taught how to be moral and virtuous. The education of women only focused on the good looking

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) has often been regarded as one of the most influential and important articulations in the history of feminist theory. Wollstonecraft, addressing such issues as education, politics and marriage and debunking the myths of female frailties, vehemently argues for the rights of women and the equality of the sexes. In particular, Wollstonecraft’s views on marriage are continuously echoed throughout Jane Austen’s beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice (1812). Wollstonecraft’s notion that marriage should be based on friendship and respect rather than economic security or physical attraction is an ideal epitomized by the nuptials between Pride and Prejudice’s two leading characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s, Maria or The Wrongs of Woman, is an analyzation and critique about a woman’s place in society. Specifically, that socially, politically, and economically woman are at a disadvantage. Furthermore, society perpetuates this imbalance through certain expectations about motherhood, marriage, and double standards. This power imbalance has always been present in society and through the analyzation of Maria and themes such as: motherhood, domination, and traditionalist thought it is possible to contextualize the era that Mary Wollstonecraft lived in to gain a better understanding of what women went through in her time so that we have a reference to compare to how women are treated today.

Mary Wollstonecraft an early feminist philosopher, writes about the ideals of equality and freedom both in her political rebuttal essay “Rights of Men” and her follow-up essay “Vindication of Women” in response to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Writing the “Vindication of the Rights of Men”, has led her to explore and express her opinions about the inequality of women during the Romantic period. As the opposition to post-revolutionary sentiment, extending rights as a just act to include the upper middle class of men, over maintaining the traditional rights given to men of nobility. Wollstonecraft interjects that women are also a vital importance to society and also deserve allowances of rights. Mary Wollstonecraft states her opinion on the argument that education is the basis for gaining equality within a society. Educating women begin the process of educating the next generation.

Paradise Lost was written by John Milton and first published in 1667, and has influenced poetry and literature in many ways since then. In fact many of the authors and works that we have read in this class were influenced by Paradise Lost.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman critiques how the society demeaned women during Wollstonecraft’s time. Wollstonecraft was a feminist considered

Wollstonecraft emphasized the value of education for women, but she called for something more than opportunities to learn needle work and social graces. She stressed that a woman’s education should shape body, mind, and emotions, eventually leading to a sense of independence. Although Wollstonecraft’s thinking was a head of her time, it reflected philosophies of the Enlightenment, which championed the power of education, social reform, and moral worth and development as the right of individuals including women. Education was necessary for women, and through moral education women would acquire virtue, knowledge and honesty.